Tick, tick … boom? If the shutdown comes, who will pay the price?

Construction cones used to cover walkway flaws, stand along the sidewalk on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., on Jan. 19, 2018. On the edge of a government shutdown, a divided House voted late Thursday to keep the government open past a Friday deadline — setting up an eleventh-hour standoff in the Senate, where Democrats have vowed to kill the measure. (Photo: Susan Walsh/AP)

With the breathless coverage of cable news countdown clocks and breaking news push alerts, the potential government shutdown looms large. A shutdown would show a breakdown of Washington’s ability to complete the basic actions of governance and furlough hundreds of thousands of federal employees. But would it have any political consequences?

But this time could be different. Republicans control the White House, the Senate and the House, as opposed to the split government of 2013. And while President Trump campaigned on his ability to make deals, he spent much of the week struggling to hammer out terms with members of his own party. With swaths of unfilled positions that impair the federal government’s effectiveness even when it’s operating, a shutdown would do nothing to convince Americans that the GOP can actually govern.

Also potentially hurting Republicans is that one of the key sticking points for Democrats on a deal is extension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, protecting “Dreamers” who were brought to the country illegally as children. Eighty-seven percent of respondents in a CBS News poll earlier this month said they favored allowing the young immigrants to remain in the country.